As content marketing becomes ever more competitive, the fight for people’s attention is forcing we marketers to be more creative. Not only in the content that we create, but the format that it is created within and how the content is distributed.

One of the more interesting formats is webinars. Webinars are a great way of engaging an audience, demonstrating your capability and engaging your audience, particularly for Business to Business marketers. You might even start achieving the cliché ‘thought leadership’!

To help you in your webinar journey, here are ten top tips:

Be careful who is presenting… – The selection of who presents or hosts the webinar is a tough one: they need to be an expert in their field as well as being very comfortable in front of the camera or microphone. It might be that this needs to be more than person.

Be careful what they are presenting… – You would think that this is obvious, but if you have attended some webinars, you will realise that this is not always at the top of people’s minds. Remember that the subject should not be want you want to talk about necessarily – it should be all about what your audience want to see and questions that they want the answers to. Do some research to find out what this is.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse – It was the legendary golfer Gary Player who said ‘the harder I practice, the luckier I get’. There is no substitution for a good rehearsal to make sure that your timings are accurate (people won’t hang around if you run over so have a script and stick to it), you are comfortable with the content, there are no technical issues. Your audience will thank you.

Promote your event – This is such a crucial part of your webinar: how are you going to let people know that it exists? You should use a range of digital marketing tools to promote including email, social media, your website, any partnering organisations, etc. Getting things wrong at this stage means that the time your webinar is taking is being wasted. Start at least 2 weeks out, but the earlier you start the better.

How will someone register for your event – This should be a very simple and singular process and all of your promotional efforts should point towards the same place (it makes evaluation much easier!). Many webinar systems have their own system for registration management, so why not use that and send automated emails to people who have registered?

Invest in a microphone – If you don’t want your webinar to sound like you are talking to your audience through a 1980s phone line, invest in a microphone – PC microphones are just not up to the job.

Interactivity is important – One of the elements that makes a webinar boring is the lack of interaction. You are staring at your screen for 45 mins or so and the temptation to check your emails is becoming overwhelming. Polls are a great way of increasing interaction as well as gathering data.

Have your say – You should give the audience the opportunity to ask questions, it is an important part of the engagement process. This could be in the form of a Q&A session at the end or several small ones throughout your content to keep people listening. Either way, make sure you have one and have an expert on hand to answer the questions of course!

Offer your contact details – Once you have amazed people with your webinar (we can hope, right?!), now is the time to allow them to get in touch, so let them know your email address and social media handles. It might be a follow-up to a point that they didn’t mention at the time of the webinar, or even a lead.

Don’t forget to follow up – You should circulate your presentation and any other materials within 24 hours of the end of your webinar. It is also a chance to answer any outstanding questions and let the audience know when you will be running your next webinar and why they should attend that too. Strike while the iron is hot.

Have you tried using webinars in your content marketing? Do you have any tips that you would like to share? Leave a comment and let us know!